The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display for presenting characters and symbols, having a liquid crystal cell and separate polarizers one arranged on the viewing side and one arranged on the rear side of the liquid crystal cell, and having a reflector arranged behind the rear polarizer.
In such liquid crystal displays without external illumination it is known that ambient light from the viewing side passes through the first polarizer, the liquid cell and the second polarizer to the reflector and is reflected by the latter, over approximately the same path, back to the viewing side. Since on this path the light must pass four times through a polarizer and there are losses of light upon each of these passes, the contrast of the characters displayed is reduced.
This is particularly disadvantageous for the displaying of light characters against a dark background since in this type of display there is already a loss of light inherently in the liquid crystal cell.
The object of the present invention is therefore to create a liquid crystal cell of the above type the characters and symbols of which can be displayed with great contrast.